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by Dr. Judith Orloff

As an intuitive psychiatrist, I worship my high octane intuitions. I owe the blessing of becoming a physician to one. However, at twenty, when an unwavering inner voice told me I was going to medical school, it was the last thing I thought I wanted. This gut-centered voice committed to your happiness, health, and survival, is, with practice, accessible to everyone. When you deviate even a nano-fraction from your inner voice, energy wanes, whether a subtle or radical bottoming out. The more ferociously faithful you are to this truth, the more energized you'll be.

Intuition offers a direct line to your life force, and also, as I experience it, to a divine intelligence. We can't afford to remain deaf to intuition's messages. Its expertise is energy; its job is to know every nuance of what makes you tick. A master at reading vibes, intuition is constantly tallying: what gives positive energy, what dissipates it. Who you meet, where you go, your job, your family, current events, are all evaluated - crucial data that you can learn to interpret and apply.

Here's a formula from my book, Positive Energy to help you get started. First, listen to your body: there are positive and negative intuitions about relationships which highlight compatible matches. Second, act on this information. This is often the hardest part. Let me walk you through the process.

Recognize Your Body's Intuitions About Vibes

A people-skill most of our parents didn't know or teach us is intuitively reading vibes. We've learned to draw conclusions from surface data: how nice someone seems, looks, education, or if a situation adds up on paper. But intuition goes deeper. To make it work for you, other ingredients must be considered, such as what positive vibes feel like: a sense of heart, compassion, and nurturance. In contrast, negative people project prickly, draining vibes that put you on guard.

Here is a general guideline of body-based intuitions. Use this checklist at a first meeting to troubleshoot problems if you're already involved, or to weigh opportunities. Also, feel free to add to it. Being an intuitive, I know that a signature energy always accompanies situations or people. Remember the Lil’ Abner jinxed cartoon character who always had a black cloud hanging over his head? Not a vibe that bodes well for auspicious outcomes. Instead, learn to gravitate towards brightness, a positive intuition your body’s responses will affirm. When tuning into vibes, take a few quiet moments to go into sensing mode, not intellectual analysis. Look for these signs to determine attraction.

Positive Intuitions About Relationships or Situations

• a feeling of comforting familiarity or brightness; you may sense you've known the person before, as with the experience of deja vu
• you breathe easier, chest and shoulders are relaxed, gut is calm
• you find yourself leaning forward, not defensively crossing your arms or edging away to keep a distance
• your heart opens; you feel safe, peaceful, energized, expansive, or alive
• you're at ease with a person's touch whether a hand shake, hug, or during intimacy

Negative Intuitions About Relationships or Situations

• a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach or increased stomach acid which may prompt an unpalatable deja vu
• your skin starts crawling, you're jumpy, you instinctively withdraw if touched
• shoulder muscles are in knots, chest area or throat constricts; you notice aggravated aches or pains
• the hair on the back of your neck creepily stands on end
• a sense of malaise, darkness, pressure, agitation, or being drained

Intuition helps you act from instinct, not impulse - a look before you leap wisdom that points you to positive energy. When it comes to who you love, where your work, or any important decision, the last thing you want to be is vague. Tuning in keeps you specific. Practice the next exercise to get this down.

Learn How to Pin Down and Act on Your Vibes

Now you're going to tune in, trust your body, and make choices based on the vibes you sense.

Tune In: Choose a relationship or situation that needs clarification about whether or not to go forward. Perhaps it's a friendship, vacation or move. Begin with an easier target before you take on higher stakes. Run it by this section's criteria for positive and negative intuitions - or others you find reliable. It's helpful to make a top five list of the most killer indicators of positive attraction. For one of my patients, it includes feeling energized and safe. Another must register an increased aliveness and peaceful sense. Write your top five in a journal so they don't get hazy. See how they add up here.

Act On Vibes: This is where we must be warriors. I know personally and from patients how much easier it is to tune into than to act on vibes. Insecurity, ego, lust and stubbornness can obscure better judgment. Sometimes it takes succumbing to them all to realize you won't tolerate such battering again. But you don't have to take such a bumpy route. If the vibes feel overall positive, go for it and explore the possibilities. If the vibes are mixed or you're unsure, take a pass or at least wait. If there's just negative, have the courage to walk away, no matter how tempting the option seems. Then observe how listening to energy in this way leads you to the juiciest opportunities.

Now I want you to start listening - really listening. I guarantee you'll start making smarter choices. Why? You'll be operating from a spot inside that's juicy, core-felt, authentic - not from an impulse to conform or disown your strength. You won't be seduced by what may look good but betrays your gut. Intuition is a truth detector.

Adapted from Dr. Judith Orloff's Positive Energy: 10 Extraordinary Prescriptions for Transforming Fatigue, Stress, and Fear into Vibrance, Strength, and Love. Judith Orloff, MD, is author of The Ecstasy of Surrender: 12 Surprising Ways Letting Go Can Empower Your Life (Harmony Books, 2014). Her other books include the New York Times Bestseller Emotional Freedom, Positive Energy, Guide to Intuitive Healing, and Second Sight. Dr. Orloff synthesizes the pearls of traditional medicine with cutting edge knowledge of intuition and energy medicine. She passionately believes that the future of medicine involves integrating all this wisdom to achieve emotional freedom and total wellness. Visit drjudithorloff.com for more information.

Are there different interpretations for different tarot decks? In other words, if I look at the same card in a Sacred Rose and a Ryder Waite deck, are there different meanings for that same card?

J.

Susyn:

The Tarot is an extremely versatile divination tool. A single card in and of itself can be interpreted in many different ways. Because the illustrations and themes of each Tarot deck vary, readers can extract many different messages from them.

Keep in mind that reading the Tarot is subject to not only the deck one uses but an individual's unique psychic abilities as well. Though each card has a basic meaning, additional interpretations will begin to develop as students advance their skills and knowledge.

The Sacred Rose and Ryder-Waite decks are both traditional forms of the Tarot consisting of 78 images that outline the journey to self-actualization and spiritual attainment. There are other decks that vary in images and interpretations, but for the two decks you mentioned, the symbolic illustrations on each card convey the same basic message.

Keep in mind that the meaning of a card will change based on the question being asked as well as the other cards shown around it. For example, if you are asking about a love relationship and the Lovers, the Two of Rods, the Three of Rods and the Hierophant appear, they could be interpreted as a promising union (The Lovers), with a possible proposal (Two of Rods), and advise that the querant wait for things to develop (Three of Rods) in a traditional manner (The Hierophant).

However, in a health reading, these same cards would take on a different meaning. The Lovers would then indicate overall balance in the body, while the Two of Rods would suggest that the querant is seeking an answer to a specific problem. The combination of the Three of Rods and the Hierophant suggest that they need to seek advice from an expert such as a medical doctor or holistic practitioner.

So as you can see, not only do illustrations vary from deck to deck, but the same cards in the same deck can take on different meanings depending on the question asked. This makes Tarot one of the most powerful divination tools available. Most of the many Tarot decks on the market offer similar versions of traditional images. Because of this, you can choose a deck you are intuitively drawn to based on its illustrations and themes and still receive a consistent, reliable reading.

If you would like to learn more about Tarot and how to extract more in-depth answers and direction from the cards, I encourage you to sign up for my beginnerís or advanced Tarot classes, which are available in the products section of my profile at Kajama.

*****

Mata:

Tarot cards weren't originally designed for divination but for playing card games; in fact, a typical deck of playing cards can be used for divination just like tarot cards can. The meaning of the cards is therefore not inherent to them but attributed to them by the person doing the reading.

Of course, over the centuries, the cards have taken on certain general meanings as the practice of divination was handed down to generations of students and explained in various books. Further, the cards depict some powerful symbols with universal meanings. For example, one has only to look at The Tower card to guess that it suggests ill fortune.

Since you're using the cards to create a language of symbols through which to communicate with your own higher self, subconscious mind, and/or metaphysical guides, the important thing is that this language work for you.

This is true of all symbolic psychic work. For example, to you seeing a cross may represent a cross-roads, while to someone else, it may signify religion and to yet another person, suffering. As the source of your psychic information will know that a cross represents a crossroads to you, when you are receiving psychic impressions clairvoyantly, you will be shown a cross when crossroads is being communicated, and something else to represent suffering and religion.

The same is true when working with tarot. When certain information is indicated, whatever card you associate with that information will come up for you.

There are two main approaches to reading tarot. One is to study the classical interpretations. This can take many years since each card has a slightly different nuance depending on the subject at hand, and can mean different things when in different positions in a spread. The second approach is intuitive: one ponders the pictures on the cards and allows the images depicted to suggest answers.

Long-time students of tarot quickly develop their own language, which is usually a combination of learned interpretations and those they have attributed to the cards.

Some decks vary slightly on the classic Ryder-Waite while others differ dramatically in terms of themes and images. The more different a deck is from the one you first learned on, the harder it will be to switch decks unless you are employing an entirely spontaneous, intuitive approach. For this reason, it's wise to spend a good amount of time developing a relationship with a new deck before using it to read for others.

Astrea:

Many times in life we hear, "You will always have what you NEED, but not necessarily what you WANT." Your spirit must have needed to experience the feeling of leaving your human body, and the suggestion in the next chapter of Sylvia Brown's book was all it took to get you there.

Even though you hadn't read it yet, your SOUL recognized the title of that chapter as something it had been seeking, and your soul, knowing that you had that reference to read after your experience, got with it and out you went!

While I don't usually recommend her books, Sylvia Brown has a wide reaching and powerful effect on lots of people. A Gemini like you would be able to relate easily to her writing and put it to good use. Synchronicity - you gotta love it!

I like your description of "getting caught." That's exactly what it feels like, isn't it? One minute you're free and hovering above the room, and the next minute, ZAP! back down into your corporeal form you go!

As a little kid, I loved that "feeling of return." With practice, most of the time we can control that event, but sometimes, when our physical ears hear a distracting noise or something else occurs to knock us back into reality, back we go. With practice you will be able to control your return better.

I find it interesting that you were visiting your mother-in-law and not someone in your own genetic family. Evidently, you and your husband got married for reasons that are even deeper than love. His family's interest in "psychic stuff" will nurture your children in such matters and help them to grow into their own abilities.

You'll never have to be concerned that when your daughter visits them, she'll be discouraged from exploring her own psychic life and power. My parents encouraged me to develop my psychic senses in a time when it wasn't nice to even discuss such things in public. Heck, it's STILL not considered a great topic at the dinner table in some families!

Your kids will get to talk about it ALL and ask questions and read and study. This is going to give them such an edge in life! Talk with your husband about how you want to present this to your kiddos, so that you are united in your approach and ready to tell them their experiences are all natural and okay.

A word or two of warning: Geminis often have difficulty staying grounded in REAL LIFE. Don't get so strung out on your ASTRAL life that you neglect what you're doing here on Earth.

You are at the beginning of a long journey to learn where your power really lies. Try to be patient with this process and take your time.